County: Westmeath Site name: PALLASBOY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0536
Author: Cara Murray, Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Iron Age (800 BC-AD 339)
ITM: E 641320m, N 735395m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.367137, -7.379150
An excavation was carried out in July 2000, on behalf of the National Museum, on a wooden vessel that was discovered during the IAWU survey of Bord na Móna industrial peatland at Toar Bog (see Appendix 2, Excavations 2000). The vessel was evident protruding from a drain face, 0.49m below the field surface. Part of the vessel had been struck by a Bord na Móna ditcher, and a piece had been broken off.
The vessel is 1.29m long, 0.57m wide and 0.49m high. Internally, it is 0.91–1.09m long, 0.54m wide and 0.42m deep. The vessel is U-shaped in cross-section, with a similar curve at each of the shorter ends. As found, part of one side of the vessel had collapsed inwards. This collapse occurred along a natural point of weakness where an earlier crack had formed, and some fragmentation of the vessel had occurred in this area. It has been finely worked on both its outer and inner surfaces and is very well preserved, despite the damage. At either end of the vessel there is an everted rim with a block handle extending below the rim. The handle exposed in the drain face had been partially destroyed, leaving only part of the block remaining. At the opposite end the handle is a finely worked, bevelled block handle, which has been cut through with a circular perforation. A small, wooden repair panel had been fixed to the external and internal face of the vessel where the split had occurred, along what appears to be a point of natural weakness in the wood. This small, finely worked panel was secured by a light wooden tie, through a series of six perforated holes, and was packed with a silt-like residue. In addition, the exterior sides of the vessel were scorched near the rim. A three-ply wooden withe was secured below the short axis of the vessel and extended through the handles at either end. Small wooden wedges had been inserted between the withe and the vessel to tighten its hold. Some small stone chips and silt were present in the peat within the vessel.
The vessel was situated on a small localised bed of reeds, in poorly humified peat. It had been secured in place by three pegs, which were up to 2.27m long, with one stake forked at its upper end. A calibrated 14C date of 197 BC–AD 68 (2045±45BP; UCD-00119) has been produced by one of these pegs. These pegs were fractured along their length owing to the displacement of the peat, and the vessel appears to have moved slightly from its original position.
